The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1887-06-02
CHE gggerald and s0e1r5>
PUBLISHED
EVERY THURSDAY Al
NEWBERRI. S. &.
WORSHIP OF THE MOON.
Traces of Superstition Remaining Over
from Medieval Days.

90 with our neighbors to offer prayer
and praise and hear the doctrine ex-
pounded weekly by the clergyman of
the parish; who belong to the Gen
eral Charitable, the Dorcas and the
Old Ladies' societies who sacrifice
our dime to the offertory and sub
scribe to the African mission, to the
new lecturn and the church music :!
Yet that such is indeed the fact we
should not be surprised to hear if
we are people who are at all particu-
lar about seeing the new moon over
our right shoulder; if we turn a
piece Of silver in our pockets for luck
at first beholding it; if we close our
eyes rather than see it through the
window, and grope our way out doors
in that condition ; if we regard it as
fortunate and por;ent of fine
weather to see the new moon IN the
old moons arms, or with its horns
turned upward; if we consider it a
sure sign of "a months bad weather
when the new moon falls on Satur-
day; if We bow to it when we first
see it, expecting the consequence
3. either Of gift or the ful6lment Of a
wish expressed while bowing; if we
refuse to have our pigs killed when
the moon is on the wane, lest the
pork shrink in the pot; if we are
careful as to the especial phase of the
moon with regard to the time of
telling our lumber-in short, if we
follow any of the customs or hold
any of the notions which the Greek
girls followed or held concerning
Diana, or the Persian women felt OBJ
ligatory in their reverence for the
horned Ashtoreth.
It is with different sort of wor-
ship, superstition remaining over
from medieval days, but yet a
Christian one, if we can call any
superstition a Christian one, that,
when a fire Of soft coal refuses to
burn, we stand the poker up before
it, thus making the sign Of the cross
with the poker and the top of the
crate, and by that means command
Ing the evil powers Of fire to obey,
the fire really obeying the law that
creates draught through the heating
of the poker and the consequent up
ward passage of the air. There is,
however, no such philosophical ex-
PLANTATION of the habit of making the
sign of the cross over the foot that
goes ito Sleep" as the phrase runs.
The cross is the subject of many a
trivial notion that should spare it,
remembering its terrible and sacred
history. In one legend Of the sort it
is said that lightning never strikes
the elder, because the cross was made
of it, and in another that the aspen
always shivers in recollection of hav-
ing given it's wood to make the cross,
showing on its face that one or the
other statement must be incorrect
and therefore, Objectionable, as
trifing with things outside the pale
of trifes. With as much reason do
people speak of the red bud as the
Judas tree, the tree on which the
wretch hanged himself, or declare
that the willow weeps because it fur
nished rods for the scourge of the
Saviour.
In themselves, of course, these
fancies are no worse than : thousand
others snch as those which assure
you that you should not for the first
time go into your new house by the
back door, unless you would invite
disaster to enter with you; that it is
unlucky to have swarm Of bees
come to you; and that your bees will
not thrive any way if once made the
subject of the least dispute; and that
they will cease to gather honey if
they are not told of the death that
occurs in the house, and given their
bit of Grape for mourning. Any one,
moreover, is as certainly engaged in
the practice of the black art and IN
offering obedience to unknown pow
ers as ifinvoking the countenance Of
the minor deities that used to be
supposed to rule the days Of the week,
who regards the old sayings con-
cerning the days on which ones nails
should be cut: "Monday, for health;
Tuesday, for wealth Wednesday,
for news; Thursday, new shoes;
Friday, for sorrow; Saturday, show
you your true love tomorrow" Sun
day being omitted, probably as a
day not to be played with in this
connection, or possibly with the idea
that the utterance Of a sacred word
scares away evil spirits and undoes
the whole spell, although another
notion regarding the same necessary
act of toilette forbids you to cut your
nails on Sunday lest you do some
thing you are ashamed of before the
week is over, which you are pretty
sure, being human, to do at all
events.
Other notions Of this nature, such
ss that mushrooms do not grow after
having once been seen, that when
angling if you count your fish you
will catch no more, that if raindrops
linger on the pane there will be no
further rain, are hardly matters of
invocation or incantation, but indi-
cate an effort to observe Nature
closely, even if also indicative Of
partial failure in the effort, or too
speedy generalization on the obser-
vation made, as iE the weatherwlse
saying that there never was a Satur-
day on which the sun did not shine
during some part OF the day, which
is not to be claimed certainly as a
superstition, but as a not sufficiently
careful note Of the operation of the